St IvesBookseller

There has been an independent bookshop at 2 Fore Street for over sixty years, and since 2001 it has belonged to Ron Johns and his family, whose small Cornish clutch of shops — Falmouth and Padstow are the siblings — comes with its own publishing arm, Mabecron Books, specialising in locally set titles. The shop itself is one of the smallest bookshops in the country: slate floor, oak shelves, staff-pick signs written by hand, and a stock that leans local without stinting on new and signed copies. Alice manages, backed by long-serving staff, and a pay-it-forward scheme runs quietly at the till. Open every day but Christmas, Boxing and New Year's days — until nine of an evening in the summer holidays.